After fighting their way through a 7 seven game series against the Memphis Grizzlies, the bruised and battered Los Angeles Clippers are all set to take on the mighty San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night
When the second of the Western Conference Semi Finals series tips off, it will see the San Antonio Spurs face off against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Game 1 of this series is scheduled to take place on Tuesday night at the AT&T
Center in Texas.
Spurs, who are rather familiar with this stage, will look to continue their 14-game winning streak and will be quite fresh as after blowing past their opponents in the first round rather easily, they have had the longest rest in
this season. The only thing they need to be aware of is the rustiness, but Manu Ginobili and Greg Popovich have made it quite clear that it will be a non-factor come Tuesday.
On the other hand, Clippers are fatigued and time is one thing that they do not have in their favour. The Clips are staring at a daunting task of playing their 6th game in 11 days and that too against the mighty Spurs.
Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and Caron Butler are all injured and given the fact that a fully fit Clipper side would struggle to beat San Antonio on any given night, the injuries have made the matters worse for LAC.
Another thing that can work against them is the unfamiliarity of their players with this stage as this is only the third time in franchise history; the Clippers have been able to get into the second round of the playoffs.
These teams went head to head with each other three times in the regular season and Spurs hold the upper hand, having won twice.
Spurs have so far been led by Tony Parker. The French point guard has carried much of the scoring and play making burden in the first round, averaging 21 points to go along with 6.1 assists. On the other hand, Chris Paul has been
the forefront of the Clippers offence, carrying them with 20.4 points, 7.1 assists and loads of leadership ability.
It would be interesting to see how these two point guards face off against each other and the series may well be decided by which point guard run his offence better.
Another interesting matchup to see would be how the high flying Griffin will face off against ‘The Big Fundamental’. Griffin, who has been known for his ability to attack the rim, has made it clear that he is going to play despite
being injured, but things will only get tougher against Tim Duncan.
On the paper, the Spurs do look like overwhelming favourites, but in honesty nobody really expected the Clippers to qualify for the next round. They did punch above their weight against the Grizzlies and if they get going against
the Spurs, it can be one h**l of a series.
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